Yep. He’d had a damn good time. Well, except for that one glitch… Speak of the devil. Prissy’s mother was heading his way. He was quite amused by little Priscilla’s reaction to her mother’s repeated attempts to get his attention. If he didn’t know better, he’d think the little girl was jealous and territorial, but he figured it was more a matter of not wanting to share. Prissy—who the hell named their kid Priscilla then shortened it to Prissy these days?—had told her mother point blank the last time the woman ventured near them that he was her Prince Charming and she should go find her own.
He smiled. Even saddled with a horrible name like Prissy, Luc didn’t doubt that was one girl who would always get what she wanted. And right now that was her mother at a safe distance from Prince Charming. With shoulders thrust back, Prissy marched over to her mother, grabbed her hand and dragged her over to the table where Cassie had set out the take-home party bags and cupcakes.
“Bet you never thought you’d be rescued by a six-year-old pink-tutu-wearing princess.” Cassie moved up beside him and began snapping the lids on the remaining containers.
Luc shook his head. “No, but then I never expected to be repeatedly propositioned by a woman at a kid’s birthday party either.”
“Have to admit, this is the closest thing to sexual harassment Are You Game? has ever encountered.” She grinned at him.
He arched an eyebrow. “Sexual harassment?”
“What else would you call it?”
“Well.” Luc rubbed his hand over his jaw. “Now that you mention it, perhaps I should put in a complaint?”
Cassie chuckled. “Technically you’re not an employee. Bit hard to make a complaint when you aren’t on the books.”
“Hmm…seeing how you’re the reason I’m here, maybe I should sue you for emotional duress?” Luc moved closer to Cassie, bent his face next to hers and blew a breath over her lips. God, he wanted to kiss her. “Or maybe you can think of some way to ease my distress?”
Her gaze met his, lowered to his mouth before bouncing back to his eyes. “Um, maybe.”
Luc had to stifle a groan when Cassie licked her lips. He also had to move away before he did something extremely inappropriate for a children’s party. “You think about it and let me know what you come up with.”
Before he gave in to the unrelenting urge to kiss her, Luc picked up a pile of boxes and headed for the van out front. By the time he got back Cassie had stacked the rest of the equipment ready for him to load and was busy talking with the mothers and girls as they collected their goodie bags. Hopefully today’s party drummed up some more business for her. Although he’d caught a glimpse of the huge calendar board in her office this morning and he’d noticed how many events Are You Game? had on the schedule. No wonder she needed to hire more staff. That thing was jam-packed full. Not one day was clear.
He gathered up another armful and made his way back to the van. As he turned around, he found two little girls with arms loaded. Both grinned from ear to ear. “Why are the princesses carrying such heavy things when Prince Charming is here to do all the hard work?” he asked.
“My mummy says even princesses have to take care of themself,” the little blonde—he thought her name was Michelle—said.
“Is that right?” He reached down to relieve them of their burdens. “Well, your mum’s right. But when there is a strong prince around you should let him do all the work.”
“Okay. C’mon, Cindy, let’s go get our cupcakes.” Michelle grabbed her friend’s hand and they skipped away.
He secured the boxes in the van and went back to find Cassie rolling up the throw-away tablecloths. “Here. Let me get those.”
“I’ve got this. I need you to take the cake-decorating equipment out to the van for me.” She indicated two large plastic tubs by the back door. “Once those are loaded we’re done and out of here.” Her grin lit up her face, her dimples winking, and he was struck again by the need to put his mouth on hers.
Responding with a smile of his own, he said, “All right. I’ll wait for you out front then.”
Luc grabbed the tubs just as Prissy and her mother came out of the house. Not wanting to talk to the woman but wanting to say goodbye to the birthday girl, he called out as he walked away. “Happy birthday, Prissy. Hope you had a great day.”
“Oh, yes, Prince Charming. Thank you for coming and making my day extra special.” She raced away from her mother to bounce along beside him. “I wished for you when I blew out my candles at Daddy’s house yesterday.”
He glanced down at her. “You wished for me?”
“Yes. I wished for Prince Charming to come to my party, and you did.” She clapped her hands.
Luc laughed. “I’m glad your wish came true.”
“Me too.” Prissy tugged on his T-shirt. “Can I give you a hug before you go?”
“Definitely. Just let me put these in the van first.”
“Prissy!” her mother called out. “Stop bothering the man.”
“She’s not a bother.” Luc put his load down and crouched to Prissy’s eye level. “I really enjoyed your party.”
The little girl threw her arms around his neck and whispered in his ear, “I love you, Prince Charming.”
Luc panicked, his gaze darting to Cassie. She stood a few feet away next to Prissy’s mother, a grin of approval on her face. Shame he couldn’t say the same for the shark. No, she was shooting daggers at him. He disentangled himself and stood. Patting Prissy’s hair he said, “Thank you for a wonderful day, Princess Priscilla.”
She grinned up at him, a gap in her front teeth where one was missing, before she took off towards the house. “C’mon, Mum. I want to have a bath with my new princess bubble bath.”
Not wanting to give Prissy’s mother a chance to corner him, Luc quickly shut and locked the cargo doors and strode to the passenger side where he climbed in and slammed the door. He couldn’t see what was happening from where he sat and he breathed a sigh of relief when Cassie slipped into the driver’s seat and started the engine. Staring straight ahead, he thanked his lucky stars he hadn’t had to rebuff another obvious come on before making his escape. Luc had a new understanding of what his boss went through after being the target of a zealous admirer.
“So what do we do now, boss?” he asked.
“We head back to work and you unload. I have some paperwork to fill out, but I can grab that and take it home to do later.” Cassie took her eyes off the road for a moment and glanced his way. “I thought we could pick up some groceries and I’ll make us some dinner.”
He was surprised by her offer and would love to have her cook for him, but he had a better idea. “How about I cook dinner? I am working for you after all.”
“You can cook?” She turned her wide eyes to him for a split second.
“I do okay. Do you have a barbeque?”
“No, only the grill in my oven.” Cassie navigated them through the late-afternoon traffic with ease. “Will that do?”
Luc could work with that, but another idea appealed more. “Why don’t we head to my place after we finish unloading? I’ve got everything I need at home to make us dinner and you can get your paperwork done while I cook.” The thought of having Cassie in his house sent a shudder down his spine and warmth into his groin. He could picture her sitting at his breakfast counter.
“Are you sure? I don’t expect you to cook for me.”
“I like cooking, and if I had any hope of doing the paperwork for you I’d offer.” He studied her profile. Her mouth was drawn tight in a frown, and he wanted to lean over and kiss her until she smiled again. “You still have hours left to boss me around, Cass.”
“I haven’t really bossed you around.” She chewed the corner of her mouth and he stifled a moan.
“Well, no, but you’re definitely the one who’s been in charge and you certainly took me out of my comfort zone in the last few hours.” Luc smiled at the little white lie. Other than a few minutes here and there, he hadn’
t been uncomfortable at all.
They pulled up at a red light and Cassie turned in her seat. “Okay, you cook dinner, but I have to warn you I’m not much of a cook so if you expect me to feed you tomorrow when you’re giving the orders you’ll have to settle for take-out.”
Luc laughed. “You can’t cook? Didn’t you make forty-eight cupcakes?”
“Well, yeah, but that’s baking. I can bake better than most.” She shrugged. “Just can’t cook much of anything else.”
“Can you make apple pie?” Luc had a weakness for fresh hot apple pie with vanilla ice cream.
“Sure.” The car behind them honked. “Oops.”
Cassie returned her gaze to the road and got the van moving again. She drove another couple of blocks before he asked, “So will you make me one?”
“What?”
“A pie. Will you make me one?”
“Oh, of course. I should have all the ingredients at work.”
“What do you need? I might have them. If not we can go shopping. In fact, let’s do that. We’ll go in the morning.” He rubbed his hands together and licked his lips. “I can already taste it.”
“We can hit the supermarket near my house tonight. I’d planned to grab some things after work today anyway.” She turned the van onto the street where Are You Game? was. “Sound good?”
“Yeah, I can pick up some fresh steaks instead of defrosting them.” Luc mentally rolled through what he had in his fridge and decided it would be best to pick up everything fresh. He shopped regularly and rarely had to throw food out, but he’d prefer to be safe than sorry, and he planned to woo Cassie with his culinary skills tonight. The screech of metal blasted his eardrums as the garage door rolled up. That thing really needed oiling.
“Shit.” Cassie braked hard. “I think it’s stuck.”
Sure enough, the door had only retracted three quarters of the way up. Luc undid his seatbelt and open his door. “Let me see if you’ve got clearance.” He stood on the doorsill and discovered they had plenty of room to drive in without ripping the roof off. Hopping down, he slipped back into his seat and shut the door. “Plenty of room.”
She eased the van forward and pressed the button to lower the roller door behind them. The grinding metal put his teeth on edge and Cassie stuck her fingers in her ears and leaning over, looked through the side mirror.
“Please go down. Please go down. Please go down,” she chanted. When the door met the floor with a resounding crack, Cassie dropped back against her seat and sighed. “Thank you.”
“Worried?”
“Yeah, I hate to admit it, but Dan’s right. We need a new roller door.” She turned off the van and pocketed the keys. “Let’s get everything unloaded and I’ll grab that paperwork.”
Luc followed her out of the van to the rear doors where they got to work. They didn’t speak, and he had to admit the silence wasn’t uncomfortable. He didn’t feel the need to fill it with mundane chatter, and he was immensely thankful that Cassie didn’t either. He’d just picked up the final box when she spoke.
“I’ll run up and grab that paperwork. We’ll be out of here in five minutes.”
She took off up the metal stairs, two at a time, and Luc stood immobile and watched her cute butt as she disappeared from view. His cock stirred. Not that the damn thing had been quiet all day. He’d kept it under control, but there was no denying he’d been semi-hard since last night, and Cassie was the reason for his embarrassing predicament. That was something he’d never had to deal with before, an unmanageable libido. There wasn’t any doubt that she was hot. But she wasn’t the best-looking woman he’d hooked up with, so what was it about her that made his chest ache? What did Cassandra Moreland have that made her irresistible?
Chapter Nine
Cassie leaned against her closed office door and sucked in a deep breath. It was becoming more and more obvious that she was in way over her head when it came to Lucas. Her body wasn’t the only thing wanting his attention. She’d offered to make him dinner because she hadn’t wanted the day to end. The more time she spent with him the more she liked what she saw. He was no longer just a hot body she could get her rocks off with. And that was the problem. She didn’t need this kind of complication in her life.
Complicated didn’t begin to describe what Lucas was. They’d known each other less than twenty-four hours and he was already the biggest distraction she’d ever faced. She couldn’t stop looking at him. And when she wasn’t looking she was thinking. Like now. She’d come up here to collect the paperwork she needed to fill out before Monday’s staff meeting and she was leaning against the door thinking about Lucas. With a sigh, Cassie forced herself to move.
She opened the filing cabinet and grabbed what she needed to finalise today’s party. The folder from last night was still sitting on her desk, so she picked that up and headed back downstairs. A quick glance at the calendar for next week reminded her she had to be in the office early Monday to get everything together for Maggie and the Bernard job. Luckily, she’d prepared all the documents earlier in the week so that job was ready to go first thing. Maggie was her top corporate consultant so she wouldn’t need anything more than the agenda for the five days of team-building exercises.
Satisfied she had everything under control, Cassie closed her office door behind her and made her way downstairs. She found Lucas waiting by the van and her stomach and pussy clenched at the sight he made leaning back against the metal side, ankles and arms crossed. He looked so different in his cargo pants and T-shirt. Easygoing and relaxed. Approachable. Mouth-wateringly sexy. The slacks and shirt he’d worn last night had given him an aura of cool detachment. An edgy, don’t-touch, don’t-come-close vibe that kept people at a distance. This Lucas looked welcoming, and she couldn’t help but be reeled in when he sent her a toe-curling smile.
“Ready?” he pushed off the van.
“Sure.” Cassie wasn’t all that confident she was ready to face the next part of their weekend challenge, but she wasn’t backing out now. “My car’s out front. I’ll just grab my bag and clipboard from the van.”
She flung open the driver’s door, grabbed the board from the dash and retrieved her backpack from behind the seat. One thing was certain in her mind. By the time Monday rolled around everything would be different. It already was. From the second she’d gone up against Lucas something inside her had switched on. Something she couldn’t get a handle on. She couldn’t understand or comprehend how one person could change her in such an elemental way. Cassie glanced through her lowered lashes at Lucas. There was no getting past how good looking he was or what her body’s reaction was to him, but it had to be more than his looks that affected her so deeply.
For the life of her, she couldn’t work it out, and that more than the intense physical reaction she had to him caused her alarm. If it were only lust she could deal with their attraction and move on. But this whole need-to-know-him thing she had going on in her head just wouldn’t quit, and Cassie knew she was treading on shaky ground, knew at any second she’d find herself sinking deep. And yet she couldn’t seem to stop from taking step after step towards him. The only other time in her life she’d felt this out of sorts was when she’d made the decision to start Are You Game?. And while that had turned out to be a roaring success, she’d still been on the brink of breaking on more than one occasion.
They reached her car and she hit the fob to disarm the locks. It was pointless to dwell on what might or might not happen. If she wasn’t going to back out of their deal and end their time together now then she needed to let the cards fall where they may. She was a firm believer in fate. Individual choices could change things to a certain degree, but if something was meant to happen it would—with or without her input. Regardless of the outcome or the traitorous path she walked, she’d made the decision to accept his challenge and she’d see it through to the end.
Cassie tossed her bag in the backseat as she got behind the wheel. They’d have to make a quick sto
p at her house so she could pick up some clothes and then they’d stop at the supermarket before going to his place. Lucas buckled his belt as she started the car, but before she could put the car in gear he grabbed her hand and wrapped it in both of his.
“Cass?”
She swung her gaze around to meet his, and in those mesmerising brown depths, she saw concern as well as the banked need that had been shimmering there all day. She licked her suddenly dry lips—swallowed. “What?”
“We don’t have to do this.” He squeezed her hand. “Nothing will happen unless you want it to.”
He was right. Nothing would happen without her consent, but she couldn’t stop this thing unfolding. No matter how much her mind protested, she found herself drawn closer to the inevitable—the two of them in bed. It wasn’t the physical aspect of their attraction that had her worried, and she had the sinking feeling that neither of them had control over the emotional side of this pull between them. She’d just convinced herself she’d follow through on their deal and now Lucas was giving her an out. She had no intention of taking it. “I know.”
Cassie tugged her hand free and shifted the car into drive. She released the brake and then eased out of her parking spot and turned towards home. The dread of a few moments ago was suddenly gone. In its place was a bubble of excitement—anticipation—eagerness to move their relationship to the next step.
Whoa.
Relationship? What the hell? Cassie glanced at him out the corner of her eye. Since when were they in a relationship? Hands curled tightly around the wheel, she squashed her thoughts and concentrated on getting them to her house safely. She needed to take this for what it was. A weekend of mutual pleasure. Nothing more, nothing less. No strings, no expectations.
7 Minutes in Heaven (Are You Game?) Page 8
